VR Class Dm11

The VR Class Dm11 was a diesel multiple unit built by GEC-Alsthom in Spain for VR Group of Finland. A total of 16 units were ordered in 1995, with an option of 16 more, at a price of 80 million Finnish marks. The first units arrived in Finland in February 1997 and testing started in Central Finland a month later, but VR cancelled the deal at the end of the same year, by which time six units had been delivered. The trains left Finland in 1999, one of the units was later seen in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2000, and they were then sold to Cuba. The train was unofficially called the Mandolino, which rhymed with the then-new Pendolino. VR did not accept the Dm11 in regular traffic for several reasons: it was claimed to weigh 37.7 tonnes during ordering, but the final units were 9 tonnes overweight, the noise level in the passenger compartments was measured 12 dB louder than expected, and the windows of the train froze during winter service. VR started a new tender in December 1997, and CKD Vagonka won the bid in 2001 with a unit called the Dm12, which reused the Dm11 numbers 4401 to 4406.